1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates generally to load bearing and/or suspension systems. In particular, the present disclosure relates to an ergonomic load bearing and/or suspension system.
2. Description of Related Art
Military personnel, law enforcement officers, and other workers have traditionally carried most of the essential tools of their trade on their belts. Duty/tool belts, and the weight and shape of the equipment carried on them, not only cause discomfort and fatigue to the wearers wearing them, but over the years of the wearer's career often cause chronic physical problems, including serious back, leg, hip, and nerve ailments.
The duty/tool belt that provides the foundation on which the wearer's tools are supported has traditionally been a heavy, rigid, leather belt, with a large metal buckle. The better leather belts are made of two layers of leather, glued, and stitched tightly together, to increase the belt's stiffness for the purpose of supporting the items it must carry.
In order to provide some support for the weight of the equipment, duty/tool belts are often attached to the wearer's trousers belt beneath it by several “keepers” spaced at intervals around the belt. These keepers are leather or synthetic straps, typically ½″ to ¾″ wide, that are placed around both the duty/tool belt and the trousers belt beneath it, after which the keeper is fastened into a closed loop either with two metal snaps or with Velcro to hold the two belts together and thus restrict the duty/tool belt's movement on the wearer's waist.
Alternatively, duty/tool belts are sometimes made with hook-and-loop (“Velcro”) material on their underside, to attach them, without keepers, to a trousers belt faced with corresponding Velcro material.
The paramount purpose of the duty/tool belt is, of course, to allow the wearer to carry his or her most important items of equipment in a manner that will make them both secure, and readily accessible when needed.
As an example, a typical police officer's “duty belt,” as it is called, often supports from 10 to as much as 20 pounds or more of equipment, typically including a semi-automatic pistol in a heavily-constructed, rigid duty/tool holster, a magazine pouch with two spare pistol magazines containing 12-18 rounds of ammunition each, one or sometimes two pairs of handcuffs, a radio with batteries, a baton (solid or expandable), a flashlight, pepper spray, rubber gloves in a glove case, and possibly a Taser, spare Taser cartridges, a cell phone, a duty/tool knife with glass breaker and seat-belt cutter, a citation book (at least for the foot patrol wearer), keys, and other items.
The result of having a significant amount of equipment and/or weighty tools suspended or attached to a duty/tool belt is that all of the considerable weight of the duty/tool belt presses downward on the wearer's hips. Depending on the wearer's physique, physical condition, the material and construction of the belt itself, the equipment carried on it, and the nature of the wearer's job description, the heavy duty/tool belt presses down hard on the wearer's hips, and, as it does, it constricts the wearer's lower back and presses on sensitive nerves. Some wearers find their belts constantly sliding downward over their hips, requiring them to tug the belt back up again and again throughout their work day.
Tightening the belt in an attempt to keep it from sliding down increases the discomfort to the wearer's back, hips, and nerves. The tight belt sometimes causes equipment or equipment pouches to bite into the wearer's hip, or to aggravate the nerves running over the hip.
Typically, the military and law enforcement communities place a high value on tradition and radical changes in uniform design are slow in coming. Generally, the sharp, neat appearance of uniformed personnel and officers is of great importance, and even a minor deviation from the unit's or agency's dress code can subject the wearer to reprimand or discipline. In the past, at least some agencies were so insistent on the uniform appearance of their uniformed officers that they went so far as to require all officers to wear their holsters on the same side, regardless of whether the wearer was right-handed or left-handed.
While such an extreme demand for consistency may now be largely a thing of the past, it is evident that any major deviation from a traditional uniformed military, law enforcement, and other appearance, such as wearing externally-visible suspenders, an equipment vest, or a uniform shirt with equipment pouches sewn into it, would be unacceptable to most military, law enforcement, and other agencies, and thus would not offer a practical solution to the duty/tool belt's physical problems for the majority of wearers who suffer-or will sooner or later suffer-from physical problems as a result of wearing a traditional duty/tool belt.
Any discussion of documents, acts, materials, devices, articles, or the like, which has been included in the present specification is not to be taken as an admission that any or all of these matters form part of the prior art base or were common general knowledge in the field relevant to the present disclosure as it existed before the priority date of each claim of this application.